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Semi-Annual ASG Tirade and Some Fan Vote Picks

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Leaked Poster via Icethetics

It’s the NHL All-Star Game season and the NHL is…something else. While the Miami Vice style that will go down in South Florida is sure to bring in merch sales, the selection of the all-stars is definitely a choice that’s been made.

Before going any further, this is my yearly reminder that the All-Star Game in any sport is an antiquated idea. In the age of cable/streaming/internet– the ASG is not needed for people to see the top players in the leagues. This weekend is one that many players would want to skip, which is why the NHL gives suspensions out to players who don’t go and are not proven to be injured at the time. I get that this is a key to the NHL marketing, but at the same time– you could hold a Comic-Con-esque event where the players just have to show up and sign autographs and flip the format to a Young Stars game so people can see a game and interact more with their favorite players– without the older star players making up an injury not to go and putting the younger generation on display. 

Back to the matters at hand then– the NHL has selected 32 all-stars already, one from each team and now leave it up to the fans to vote-in the rest of the players. This is a format that is tried and true and has not backfired twice on the NHL which almost saw Rory Fitzpatrick get into the 2007 All Star Game and saw John Scott win All-Star MVP in 2016 in a feel-great moment for the league…that the league tried so hard to sabotage. Let’s not forget host fans stuffing the ballot boxes, too. Those instances, meme oriented or otherwise, shows that fans want a reason to watch the game that otherwise may not be given to them. There’s no incentive to the games, aside from giving millionaires more money and a vehicle to the MVP. Plus, as stated earlier– if the NHL has to strong-arm the players into going to the event; almost makes you think the players aren’t jazzed about playing shiny hockey when they could be at home resting with family. 

Regardless of all that– who’s going to be the random folk-hero the internet gets behind to take the crown of “meh” All-Star. Looking at the rosters, the chosen players in the Atlantic and Metro divisions are all forwards– less the one goalie already picked; so defense is on the menu there. The Central has all three of their defense already picked out, with the Pacific only having one defenseman. Then, of course, you have four goalie roles to fill out. So, let’s go down the list of who I think should get in, fan vote or otherwise:

ATLANTIC: Filip Hronek, Detroit: The rebound Hronek has made defensively on the Red Wings is stellar. He’s on the path to a career year, he’s been stellar on the power play, and he’s a key part in this Detroit rebuild. Give him some open ice and he’ll shine out there for the winged wheel group. 

METRO: Vitek Vanecek, New Jersey: The Seattle Kraken legend has gotten a boost in New Jersey this year. With 15 wins already, he’s helped the Devils go from lottery picks to playoff possibilities. It would only make sense to give the Devil his due as the back-up and create a Hudson River tandem in net. 

CENTRAL: Jordan Kyrou, St. Louis: Leading the Blues in goals and points, it’s wild that he didn’t get the nod outright. He used last year’s postseason as a jumping off point and hasn’t slowed much since. Adding him to the other young stars on that Central squad and it’ll be a skills showcase in this one for them. 

PACIFIC: Tyler Myers, Vancouver: A former Calder Trophy winner, Myers is still logging over 20 minutes a game for a Canucks team who has a major identity crisis going on. Not bad for a guy in his 14th season in the league. Only Quinn Hughes is logging more ice time on the blue line. Plus/minus is a meaningless stat, but only he and Luke Schenn are pluses on the Canucks defense. Let the big man eat in South Florida. 

Wright Loaned to Coachella Valley for “Conditioning”

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Photo: Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via AP

After playing seven games and being healthy scratched for 11 games– including the last five straight games, Shane Wright has been moved to the AHL for a conditioning stint with the Coachella Valley Setlist– errr– Firebirds. For me, this is reminding me of something that happened back in 2008. 

Back when Steven Stamkos entered the league, then Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Barry Melrose didn’t play the former 1st overall pick because he felt Stamkos wasn’t ready for the NHL yet. This is after the Lightning had a “Seen Stamkos” campaign hyping up their young star in the making. In Melrose’s disastrous 16 games (5-7-4) in Tampa, he played Stamkos in all those games with Stamkos playing under 10 minutes five times in that stretch and with two goals and two assists. 

It seems like Hakstol is feeling the same way about Wright that Melrose felt about Stamkos. The difference is that the Kraken have a decidedly better record (10-5-3) than what the Lightning did at the time, so not playing Wright seems like the correct decision since his absence isn’t something that has seemed to be a big factor. NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman said on the Jeff Marek Show that “Unless Hakstol was forced to play Wright more, he isn’t going to play very much in Seattle” and a move to the OHL could be looming. 

Granted, this decision probably won’t sit well with Kraken fans, as they feel Wright is a big part of the team going forward. Hard to argue when you use the fifth overall pick to snag what many people believed would be the player going first overall in the draft. But, again, the record indicates he’s not needed as much because he’s direct involvement isn’t affecting too much of the result. 

My biggest issue is what’s going to happen if he’s sent to the OHL and loses interest in that because he feels he’s outgrown it?? He was brought into the league with exceptional status granted. Even missing a year for COVID, he racked up 94 points in 63 games last season and his rookie OHL year he had 66 points in 58 games. There’s not much more for him to accomplish out there in major junior; unless it’s winning an OHL title and Memorial Cup. It’s hard to think that he needs to be there for improvement and he could even get disenchanted with the notion and regress a bit while then feeling vindictive against the Kraken for sending him down there. 

Some people claim he might have an attitude problem due to him excelling at every level and thinking he’s owed things. Some people claim he’s just not NHL ready with his play and he needs to get stronger and have more ice time elsewhere before making the jump. It’s kind of a shame that the CHL has a deal with the NHL for players with junior eligibility, because Wright could very well excel in that climate against other prospects while also not taking two steps backwards by going back to juniors. 

At the end of the day, Kraken fans are left wondering if they’ll ever see Shane at all the rest of the season.

The Mullett Arena Student Section Will Be the Best Thing Other NHL Teams Will Never Incorporate

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Photo via VenuesNow.com

Everyone is going to dunk on the Arizona Coyotes. Rightfully so, as this team has been a disaster since 2009 when Jerry Moyes first sold the team. Even more now playing in a college hockey arena with an unfinished visiting locker room for the opening weekend and no concrete plans for their own arena coming up. 

But could this turn the corner for them?? Could playing in a sub-5,000 capacity building be the turning point for the Coyotes to get people to love them and not wish them to move elsewhere. 

Short answer, no. 

Long answer, no– but they’re going to give people and the league an experience that won’t soon be forgotten. 

The one thing out of this whole situation is going to be what becomes of the “Student Section” portion of Mullett Arena. With the cost-effective student tickets in that section, it could very well create something akin to what European fans experience every game. It’s something that would be strictly unique to the Coyotes and Mullett Arena…but when it’s gone once the Coyotes leave, will that concept stay??

A part of me would like to think that if the Student Section is a success, especially being so close to the ice, would more teams think about doing the same kind of thing in their arenas to build a younger fan base and create a more jovial atmosphere for their rink??

Short answer, no.

Longer answer, no– but because they don’t want to give up those high-dollar seats for $25 tickets for a rowdy crowd because sports is corporate and the belief is that you can’t have a good fan experience when the rowdies are near the ice and not in the nosebleed– where some think they belong. 

It all comes down to dollars. Regardless of if the Student Section at Mullett becomes one of the bigger stories out of this season. Regardless of if you can build a new, younger fan base from lowering ticket prices for a section to accommodate college students to build their own culture. Regardless of if it will make the sport grow because of how insane the crowds will become– owners don’t want to give up $100 a seat to make a better atmosphere. 

Because sports aren’t about fun. Sports are a business. And businesses need money– not fun. My hope is that through this whole situation the Coyotes find themselves in (yet again), that the Student Section can bring some fun to the hockey-going experience and to the TV experience, as well. My hope is that enough Arizona State students show up to not only support the Coyotes, but to make their mark on hockey to let other colleges know that they are a hockey school now, too. Make the experience big, make it project through the TV broadcasts, and make it so that people actually start thinking of Arizona as a hockey destination.

TEPID TAKE: The Olympics and NHL Are Better Off Without Each Other

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Photo via Getty Images/Olympics.com

Juraj Slafkovsky being named MVP of the Olympics and having the focus put onto him is one of the reasons why the NHL doesn’t need to be in the Olympics. Not only does it give other players a chance to shine, but it allows broadcasts to focus on players who may or may not been given the platform if the NHLers were there to take the focus for themselves.

The last two Olympics have had their ups and down. The European nations have stepped up in a big way, especially those who don’t rely on NHL players to begin with. If the NHLers were to play, who’s to say you have same great stories like you did with Germany in 2018 and Slovakia in these Games?? Those moments for those nations may not have even happened and then pundits perhaps start to rip on the Olympics even having those nations be able to participate because they can’t produce NHLers the way that Russia, Sweden, Canada, the US, and Finland do– so why even include them except to be a whipping boy for those countries??

Personally, the disruption of the NHL season is something that annoys me. Sure, the time of some games are bad, as are the idea of injuries in the Olympics that would affect the season. But going to the Olympics games just breaking up the NHL season for the hell of it kills any momentum teams might have that could actually get them in the playoffs. The NHL is the only major North American league to stop their league for the Olympics. MLB didn’t allow their players on 40-man rosters to play in the 2021 Games due to the threat of injury that could cost teams money if their top players go down and for shutting down the league for two weeks. Which, as the pandemic still rears its head now and again, is a costly measure as it is with local regulations.

Hence, that’s why MLB has the World Baseball Classic and why the NHL has the World Cup of Hockey. Yeah, it’s not for Olympic gold, but you’re representing your country off of the season schedule– so it’s fine. Everything’s fine. It’s not that the International Olympic Committee screws them over for media rights and insurance money or any of that…not at all.

One way to really spice up the hockey in the Olympics if the NHL doesn’t go and people don’t want to send journeymen– make the World Juniors the Olympics every four years. It’s akin to Olympic soccer, which is under-23, and it would make those who are really geeked about their team’s prospects coming up and how they fit on the world stage. Sure, the tournament is mainly a big money maker for Hockey Canada hosting the even every other year, so they won’t like losing that profit– but given the option of seeing that versus the journeymen players we have seen in the past two Games; it could provide a faster game.

The talk of people saying the Olympics needs to be the best taking on the best– but then looking back and speaking fondly about the 1980 US Olympic team– is just noise to me. I don’t need the NHL to be in the Olympics. I have TNT and ESPN+. I can see the best play against the best every night if I wanted. There’s no need for the NHL to be in the Olympics aside from fueling their own egos in thinking that the NHL is the end-all, be-all when it comes to hockey and that if they’re not in it– no one will care about hockey. You know, like how the Hockey Hall of Fame has pretty much turned into the NHL Hall of Fame.

Big League Dogs to Small Town Pond??

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Where will this couple go if the Coyotes can’t get into Tempe/ Photo via Arizona Coyotes

We’re well aware the issues with the Arizona Coyotes over the better part of a decade now. It’s been added to thanks to the story about possibly sharing the new rink built for the Arizona State hockey team while they await their arena in Tempe to be build.

You know– the arena they don’t actually have yet but how the hell could they lose to themselves since they were the only bidder for the grounds that Tempe put out there– oh wait, they are losing out on it due to lack of support form the city.

Some of the uproar about the move varies from the arena being very small for NHL standards to people pointing out the effort the NHL has put in to keeping the team in the area through all the ownership issues and money problems. To which, I can see their point. First, the new Arizona State arena only is slated to hold 5,000 people in there. Fun fact– only two AHL arenas (Utica and Belleville), two ECHL teams (Glen Falls and Trois-Rivieres), and two SPHL arenas (Vermilion County and Birmingham) hold less than the new arena. Optics don’t look at this too kindly for a top-level NHL team.

Secondly, the NHL has gone all out to try and make the Coyotes works in Arizona– rightly or wrongly. The owners have come and gone from this franchise, all citing being in Glendale as the reason for their shortcomings in the stands. While that could be true, Glendale has over 250,000 people living there so it’s not like it’s some out of the way hamlet with no people– hell, it’s even considered part of the Phoenix-metro area that consist of almost five-million people. You’d have to think there’s some kind of marketing scheme that’d be able to get 17,000 people into Gila River Arena on a gamely basis.

The debate about trying to keep the Nordiques, original Jets, and North Stars in their area could rage on forever– but at the time you could see the NHL’s strategy in order to boost league revenues and interests beyond the markets they were in– Quebec City and Winnipeg being the two smallest at the time. That said, the NHL has been consistent in trying to keep teams in their current markets– Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Ottawa, Buffalo, Nashville– they’ve all had the NHL intervene with finding owners to keep the team in the area or being the medium to bridge a gap for a new arena– looking at you next, Calgary. So, the fight they are putting up now with the Coyotes (and have been since 2008) is consistent with what they have been doing– so I’m not shocked.

For me, the biggest play will be what happens if the Arizona State deal does work and the Coyotes actually do get granted the land to build in Tempe. Since Gila River is no longer an option since the Coyotes will get the boot after this season and it’ll be 3-4 years before any new arena will be done; owners and players probably aren’t going to be too happy with a team playing in that small of an arena. Will it be a ruckus crowd?? Perhaps, if the ticket prices are right– hell, you get enough die-hards into that building; it might be the toughest place to play by year two.

Of course, that’s if everything were to go to plan and the history of the Coyotes dictates that there’s always going to be a wrench thrown in there. All the while, people in Houston get their hopes up and lick their lips at the possibility of getting this team in their area– an area I’m sure the NHL owners would love to be in.

While this does suck for fans of the Coyotes and it drains the nerves of other fans– you can’t deny how interesting and entertaining from the outside this really is. For 14 years it’s been a “will they, won’t they” situation and has amused me for that time span. Wherever the cards may fall– this could be the final season of it and we should enjoy it while we can because stability will ruin this whole bit.

On The Topic Of Olympic Hockey Without the NHL

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I am glad the NHL isn’t going to the Olympics. Since 1998, I don’t think I’ve ever bought into the whole “best vs. the best” ideal because if they’re the best and they’re playing in the NHL…aren’t we getting that on a nightly basis?? Can’t they do that at the World Championships??

However, there are some people– maybe rightfully so– annoyed with the NHL not going. Pavel Bure went so far in saying that the NHL doesn’t care about growing the game of hockey, they’re only caring about their league business.

While I can understand what Bure is trying to get at, it’s not just the NHL’s burden to carry in growing the sport. They are the most recognizable league for sure, but in the world we live in today; the interest in hockey can be taken in by anyone with an internet connection and the desire to watch the NHL or any other hockey for that matter. Other than maybe a passing bump post-Olympics, the idea it would create a boom for hockey just because the NHL is there never really jived with me overall. Always seemed like the NHLPA used it as the possibility of a huge ratings bump when it doesn’t seem to happen.

The Olympics have never really benefited the NHL, aside from the players being associated with the league. They don’t have any media rights to the coverage, they can’t use any photos or videos to help promote, and it turns an already long season into even more of a marathon. Luckily, this season; the perfect storm of COVID cases, the Games being in China (which many North American fans wouldn’t tune in live to watch games), and the threat of a five-week quarantine if someone were to test positive gave the NHL and NHLPA the no-brainer decision on skipping out of this one.

And, like I said before– I’m glad they’re not. The 2018 Games were fun with the plucky German crew having a couple big upsets on their way to Silver, the Olympic Athletes from Russia taking home their first goal medal as the OAR and the first for that area of the world since the Unified Team won it in 1992. It showcased players like Kirll Kaprizov before he made it to the NHL, while also bringing older players that many may have forgotten to take part– allowing them to live their dream that they may have thought as being impossible due to the NHLers going out for the Olympics. The Hockey News’ Steven Ellis wrote about it better than I’m putting out there.

One point I will bow to is the one that non-traditional hockey nations can benefit from being on the same ice as NHLers from more developed hockey nations. You could argue that Italy’s entry in 2006 help that country grow a little in terms of having more competitive hockey despite some the team being from Canada. The South Koreans were gearing up as if they were going to face NHLers for 2018 before it didn’t happen. Teams like Germany, Norway, Belarus, Slovenia have been matured on the big stage, as well. Hell, they almost ousted the host nation because they didn’t know if they’d be embarrassed or not against NHLers for this one.

The NHL’s participation is not the end-all, be-all for men’s hockey. Hey, who knows– the Games as a whole could be pushed back a year and then the NHL can get back into it. It has happened before and could happen again for this. Even then, I’ll still stand by my thought that the NHL and the Olympics are better off for not crossing the streams for the near future.

NHL Adding Jersey Sponsors, Revenue in 2022-23

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Reports on Tuesday stated that the NHL will put ads on jersey starting in the 2022-23 season and thank goodness this dance is over. Thankfully, the NHL has come to its senses and realized that ads are not a bad thing and that they’ll just be following in the footsteps of most hockey leagues domestic and internationally by getting ads on the jerseys.

This has been teased for a while with every Chicken Little hockey fans proclaiming the sky is falling at every mention of it. Well, we’ll see how they hold up with it becoming a reality. Everyone claims purity of the sport, but that died when they started using aluminum sticks and goalies started to cosplay as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. It’s about revenues, baybee, it’s about getting that salary cap up, baybee. They already have the sponsors on the practice jerseys, think of the money they could get for game jerseys.

It’s not greed, it’s capitalism, baybee, let’s go!!!

But seriously, this isn’t bad. This isn’t like a player going out to get their own sponsors to look like a NASCAR driver– though that’d be pretty awesome. It’s about activating more partnerships, getting money with the gates being down due to the pandemic that’s currently going on, and it’s about catching up with other sports leagues.

I can’t say with certainty, but I highly doubt the league would allow a sponsor to overwhelm a team logo, much like club soccer over in Europe. That’s not good for team branding and the NHL is all about that. The league will have parameters about contracts with sponsors and hopefully vet those sponsors; much like they did with the helmet ads. Plus, they don’t want to have teams switch sponsors year-in and year-out; though it would be a boom for the jersey industry.

To me, people who boycott the league for jersey ads are only using it as an excuse for not getting out of it earlier for much more heinous things that the NHL and their member teams haven’t addressed– either in part or as a whole.

The sun will come out tomorrow. Your team should have still shouldn’t have gotten rid of that one guy. Your team will still be one piece a way form a Cup. They’ll just have a little extra weight on their upper torso.

Twenty

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August 8th, 2001 marked the first Face Off Hockey Show. Known just as “Face-Off,” it was a streaming radio show that pre-dates the iPod by two-and-a-half months– which is why we didn’t call it a podcast. It was a show that streamed live and thanks to code and all of that– it was made available as an on-demand stream. It was kind of ahead of its time.

If you were to tell me then that this show would still be going two decades later, I’d be a little apprehensive. At that time, Marc and I were both about to head to college, while Jon had a career already, and Sean was running the streaming business that hosted our show. At any time it could have just fell by the wayside because of life getting in the way. Hell, I moved to another country three years into the show, so needed to adjust and adapt to that was a big deal.

But we did just that. From VOIP phones to cell phone cards to Excalibur boxes, to then Hangouts On Air and now Skype– we’ve found a way to do a show every Wednesday (give or take two or three) from 2001 until the present. It’s been a way for us to keep in touch, it’s been a way for us to get/keep our names relevant in the hockey landscape, and it’s allowed up opportunities we might not have otherwise have taken. Granted, Sean has gotten plenty on his plate nowadays and really dropped off for a bit; the Pitzes and I have kept this train a-rollin’.

When you look at the 20 years or work we’ve done and the places we’ve been; the question that may come up and one that I always have is whether or not we feel we should be bigger in terms of popularity than what we have now??

Personally (since I don’t know what the Pitzes think), I do think we should be bigger. That’s easy to say when there’s a bias in it, but I mean– we’ve put in the work, the longevity, know some of the right people– but the wide-spread notoriety hasn’t happened for us. While that sucks, the core group of people who enjoy us seem to enjoy us a lot. Having that “underground” fan base is pretty cool and I love them to death. I just wish more people enjoyed us how our fans have enjoyed us.

We don’t play the game well. We never wanted to be the fake persona on the podcast or any kind of online presence just to be in the good graces of people. We know who we like, we want to talk to people who we like, and it’s kind of easy for us to pick up the people who might be great in some capacity in their own online bubble; but are people I personally don’t think I could be fake for if they were to come on the show. We know the people we gel with on the show and that’s why they’re a constant for us. But we also know who we wouldn’t gel with and I wouldn’t want to do a forced interview just to get listeners from their portfolio.

Another way we don’t play the game well is that we don’t mesh with the NHL ideology. That was never more noticeable when Jen (NHL History Girl) introduced me to former senior VP of communications for the league, Frank Brown, and to get the response of an icy cold stare and a “I know who you are” as a response to my introduction…pretty much shows why we as Face Off Hockey Show rarely get NHL credentials under the show name. The show hasn’t been credentialed since 2017. No reason why, no real idea why– but it is what it is now, I suppose.

Granted, I’m sure a lot of other bloggers and podcasts have been treated the same way. After the big internet boom of the late ’00s, early ’10s; the NHL has had to be picky and choosy about who gets what and where. Add that to everyone old beat writer joining The Athletic and doubling the coverage by team beats because of it– if you don’t have a big status; you’re not going to get into the show.

In any case, we still soldier onward. This show has been great for me to stay in touch with my friends back home every week and make me play pretend radio guy as a hobby for the past two decades. This has been a great time for me and I hope it continues for many more years to come. We have a great relationship with the Maryland Black Bears of the NAHL, a solid relationship with the University of North Dakota, and made some pretty long-term friends/fans out of this whole thing. For me, someone who wanted to get into media since I was a teenager, I couldn’t think of a better time than these past 20 years.

Take care of yourself and someone else.

Mock (YEAH) Expansion (YEAH) Draft (YEAH)

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The day that we all were waiting for is finally here– probably the last Expansion Draft of our lifetimes in the Seattle Kraken. For myself, I ran through plenty of mock drafts– mostly for shits and giggles and with not much real logic thrown into some of these picks. It’s really what I want to happen rather than what I think will happen.

The first draft was for the June 30th show of Face Off Hockey Show, when we all did drafts and NBC’s Sean Leahy judged them– mostly siding with Lyle Richardson of Spector’s Hockey because those media elites stick together. For me, the big pick was PK Subban going to the Kraken because they needed a face to the organization and he is going to a contract year which he’ll probably do all he can in order to get a last contract.

I only made a second draft because the news of Carey Price being left unprotected in this draft was put out there. Sure, a lot of injury concerns coupled with an $11M bonus in September aside– why wouldn’t want to pick a goalie and build from the net out??

After talking myself out of it and plenty of free time to do it– a third draft pick was in there. For the Price draft, I had to get rid of Subban on there, but he’s definitely on there now with Price not in the picture for the third draft.

My final pick is what I’m going with. It’s without Price, and tweaks here and there.

It was a fun thing to do. This is something I’m not going to take seriously because I’m not getting paid to take it seriously. I’m not getting paid personally at all– just through the FOHS Patreon and that mostly goes to show things. So, sit back, enjoy the show tonight– should be a hoot.

Tepid Take: Somehow, Pierre McGuire Got His Front Office Gig

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It’s taken a minute, but the Pierre McGuire news has calmed down a bit– so thanks to the wonders of having a day-job, my take is beyond late. Hence, a Tepid Take scenario. People were dumbfounded bu this move of Pierre McGuire going to the Ottawa Senators as Senior VP of Player Development. Many mocked the Senators for this move, many Sens fans were severely distraught, some Senators loyalist/media people are wondering who let the peanut gallery have a voice on who is and isn’t a good hire.

When it comes to this move…I’m optimistically skeptical. It’s a deal that would work out big, it could be a deal that works out horrible. There’s a lot of me who leans towards the latter outcome, but there’s some shimmer of hope that because the Senators haven’t been the best over the last couple years, this could be some kind of move that could turn the ship around…or not.

The only comparison I liken this to is when Tampa Bay hired Barry Melrose during his ESPN stint. Melrose was away from coaching and on TV for 13 years, coached in 16 games– in which he didn’t like Steven Stamkos being on the roster apparently– then he went back to the booth. McGuire could have that same fate, but at the same time– he might have a longer leash not being in the direct public eye.

For the gimmick that McGuire plays, he does know the players and prospects. The character of Pierre is over-the-top to a fault and trying to let people know where a player grew up– even if it’s hokey as all hell. But when you listen to him in other interviews out of character; he’s more toned down, more direct to his point, and does know how the game was played. And there’s a reason why I put a past tense there.

I make no secret that I’m not a big analytics guy as personal preference.I can see some of the points for its use in the game, but I’m not an overly math guy for fun. My day job throws enough numbers at me that my leisure time, I don’t want to be bogged down in equations and such. This, however, is McGuire’s job and whether or not he embraces the new way hockey is scouted will probably determine his tenure and legacy as front office guy.

During his media car-wash, he quote was “It’s not that I hate analytics, it’s that I believe in scouting. I don’t hate analytics. I think it’s a tool that can be utilized in any kind of scouting, but I’m a big believer in boots-on-the-ground scouting.” Daps and head-taps to Stephen Whyno on the transcription.

The whole “old school hockey guy” is dying out and McGuire could be what fully kills it if he messes this up. I understand his whole ideal of the “eye test” when it comes to scouting and maybe some analytics aren’t up his alley– but that’s the way it is now and you either adapt or go back to the booth. The key to McGuire is whether he completely dismisses analytics out-of-hand; which is a big mistake these days. Sure, there’s analytic darlings of the past who didn’t amount to much but folk-hero status; but that side of things could make or break a person in the player development role if they sign a guy for big bucks who passed the eye-test, but couldn’t hold up in certain situations on the ice.

While people dance on the grave of the NBC muppet going to the front office, it’ll be very interesting to keep track on the make-up of the Senators going forward. Maybe Eugene Melnyk is going all “Major League” on this team and hiring the worst possible people to sell the team and have it move somewhere else. It almost seems that way on the surface.